’30 Rock’ Vows Comcast Deal Won’t Deter Corporate Jokes

Tina Fey and the cast of “30 Rock” will continue to poke fun of NBC’s parent company…no matter who that parent happens to me.

Cable operator Comcast Corp.’s proposed deal to take over General Electric Co.’s NBC Universal unit won’t change the show’s raison d’etre, says executive producer Robert Carlock. In fact, the merger has made things even funnier for the staff writers.

“To us it’s great, we’ve been able to do our version of ‘ripped from the headlines,’ which a lot of comedies don’t get to do,” Carlock says. The show has already hinted that Comcast is just a vehicle for pornography. “We don’t begin to imagine that the good people in Kabletown are chiefly purveyors of pornography, but we need to make some sort of observation about our fictional company.”

The merger provides lots of fodder for Alec Baldwin’s Jack Donaghy, who served as the “Head of East Coast Television and Microwave Oven Programming” at General Electric before he was transferred to the NBC headquarters to retool a fictional late-night comedy show led by Fey. (In “30 Rock,” the parent company of NBC is the elusive Sheinhardt Wig Company.) “He’s been trying to climb the ladder at GE for 25 years and the idea of a new company coming in has forced our hand,” Carlock says. “We have to play it as changes are happening. GE can’t continue to own our fake NBC.”

The “30 Rock” brand of humor isn’t exactly TV writers getting revenge since the network is in on the joke, and doesn’t seem to mind. Chief executive Jeff Zucker has said he hopes the critically-acclaimed but low-rated sitcom will continue to throw jabs at NBC regardless of who owns the network. “We get away with it only because they let us,” Carlock says. “Maybe they just like the attention. Or, maybe it’s so beneath Jeff Zucker’s consideration that it’s just flattering.”

About Speakeasy

Speakeasy is a blog covering media, entertainment, celebrity and the arts. The publication is produced by Barbara Chai and Jonathan Welsh with contributions from the Wall Street Journal staff and others. Write to us at speakeasy@wsj.com or follow us on Twitter at @WSJSpeakeasy or individually @barbarachai.